Spanish utility model ES 0291930 U is known, which relates to a device for continuously cooling or heating for fluid or pasty products. This device is formed by three concentric vessels closed at one of their bases and opened at the opposite base, a rotating disk being located in the open part from which there emerge multiple arms to which scraper blades for scraping the walls are secured.
A cooling or heating fluid is introduced between the walls of the three vessels for thermally conditioning the fluid or paste placed therein. The entrance and exit of the product is carried out from the face to which the three vessels are joined and flows from the inner storage tank until its exit from the outer storage tank.
The difficulty of said apparatus lies on the one hand in that the chambers through which the product passes do not have the same dimensions or capacity, whereby the residence time of the product in them is variable, making it difficult to perform the heating or cooling calculation thereof. The capacity of the apparatus is quite limited, since it increases proportionally to the diameter of the apparatus, being able to result in a storage tank with large dimensions.
The product adheres to the walls of the vessels as the wearing of the scraper blades occurs, whereby heat transmission and therefore the cooking and/or cooling of the product is made difficult, the latter getting dirty very easily.
Some of the drawbacks set forth are solved by Spanish patent application P200602733 of the same applicant as the present invention. In the machine described in said application, a casing in which the foods are treated internally comprises at least two thermally conditioned walls and at least one blade moving tightly between both walls. The ratio between the volume of the casing and the thermally treated surface thus increases, simulating traditional cooking instruments.
However, this machine has the drawback that not all the wall is scraped, particularly the upper end of the conditioned thermally wall, as well as the fact that all the elements for the heat treatment of foods must be made in a block, a modular assembly thereof not being possible.